Phantom Limb
by WriteWhatever
Summary: An ex-child soldier all grown up pursues his dream of escaping his life of violence. It's a challenge, but he doesn't have to do it alone. Little influences from MGS5.
1. Chapter 1

**MLP is Hasbro's, not mine.**

I was running, running pretty fast because everything around me was a blur, but I didn't care. I just want to be far away from them. Those fuckin bastards, especially that triple crossing fuck. How dare they kill him. My companion, my brother. They wanted us dead by all means, but I don't die easily, fuck that shit.

Right now I'm sprinting through a forest. Trees and more trees pass by narrowly hitting a branch or two. I believe a river is not too far from my position.

And I was right. The river was about 20 meters from my position. I took a quick breather and a drink to regain my stamina. I also took the time to wash the blood off my hands, or should I say hand. I lost one of my hands a long time ago, well a portion of my arm to be exact but that's just another story. Alright I have to be quick, they're not too far from here and there's no fuckin way I'm going back.

My search was becoming futile, I could not find him anywhere. I swear he fell around here…or over there. Fuck! I'm going crazy now! Where the fuck could he be?! I can't use my radio anymore because there's no reception in this area and the batteries fell out when I dropped them. Shit!

And Lu's not much of a help. Where the fuck is she when I need her right now. LUNA!

" Alright, alright I'm here, no need to ye-" I cut her off.

"Fuck you! Where am I and help me find someone" I'm not the most cheery fella.

"Take it easy, Shell, and what happened to you?" Luna asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"You look terrible."

"I fell out of fuckin plane. Didn't you know that?"

" No I didn't, are you okay?"

"Just fine."

You see the thing about her is that she acts as my personal guardian angel. She watches over me helps out whenever it's needed. It was strange but I got use to it over time. She saved my life only twice maybe. Everyone calls me the 'Phantom' because they think I have some super natural powers but it was actually her doing those things, lifting chairs and blowing out light bulbs. It's fun to see people's reactions. My friends are already use to my shenanigans, they're not the ones who are easy to get surprised.

Damn it my fake knee's killing me it's been like five hours since my crash landing and my prosthetic leg already bugging the ass cheeks out of me. Just so you know I lost my right leg after a little incident with a land mine back in Cuba.

"Serpent, I'm picking up something." Said Luna, which got my attention.

"I think...I can feel him…he's…not to far." I can tell she was concentrating very hard, our minds are linked together. She knows what I feel, I know what she feels.

"Serpent, I think I found him. He's located fifty meters to the west but we better hurry." Luna informed me. Time to move.

Fifty meters to the west, looks like I found him…and I'm already too late. Fuck.

"Is he…"

"Circuit you alright there buddy?" I asked him. I gently nudged him to see if he would have any reaction. Not a single movement. I checked his pulse. Two minutes have passed and I stood up.

"How is he?" Asked Luna, fearing the worst.

So how many is? Three? I lost Circuit, Vince and Crawfish. I feel like shit now. All I could do was stare at the lifeless body. We had so many years ahead of us, but life had to cut his short. We were a fuckin team, the most well known one in the militia. We were called Little Wolves because of our ferocity in battle, we've been fighting since we were twelve. Child soldiers were common back then and we were the best. No oppressive government force was going to block our paths. Well I guess that's all over now.

Luna slowly made her way over to the body and frowned. She did like him because he was a good friend of mine. Well there's no time to waste standing here and mourn about it, we have to go now.

"Where are you going?" Asked Luna.

"We got to move out now otherwise they'll find us." I replied leaving no hint of emotion in my speech.

"But…shouldn't we do something about him?" She pointed to the body. There is absolutely no time for a fuckin funeral here if that's what she's asking for.

"I didn't do anything when Vince died what makes you think we'll have enough time for a proper burial?"

She knows about our situation but it just doesn't feel right for her to leave a dead body of a fallen friend without giving it the respect it needs. But she damn well knew that if I die, she'll be alone once more. She told me her story of being trapped in the moon for a thousand years and the loneliness really took a toll on her fragile mind. So all in all; she would rather die than to be alone for the next eternity. We have a really close bond and we both never dared an attempt to separate it. Actually I'm lying, I have tried to sever our link once, it was the day when I was massacring a bunch of fuck face pirates who had the nerve of stealing my shit. She highly disapproved of my actions but she knew the fuckin pain I was going through. It took a lot of begging from her to not blow my suicidal ass up with a propane tank. I just didn't want her to live with a murdering asshole like me.

It was night fall now, I can hear the frogs croaking in a nearby pond. I watched the embers fly away from the campfire. I took out a water bottle and drank from it. It tastes refreshing. Lu was sitting opposite from me. She was staring at the fire. Something was on her mind.

"Lu." I said. She looked up at me. Lu is just a nickname I came up with.

"You probably hate me right now because we left without burying him, so I want to say I'm â." I'm not good at expressing these kind of feelings.

"No, I don't hate you." She replied. "I'm just sad that all of your friends are gone now."

My leg's killing me again fuck, sometimes I can actually feel my right leg even though it's not there. I hate that feeling. But the pain I get from losing my arm and leg is nothing compared to the pain I get from losing a friend. We had our fair share of battle scars. Vince was a double amputee. He lost his legs from falling debris. Crawfish suffered from serious third-degree burns on the left side of his face. Circuit lost his right eye when a pipe bomb blew up nearby. We were all veterans of war and conflict, and I'm only twenty-eight.

Lu noticed my pain so she walked over to my side and blanketed me with her wings. They were soft and warm. She closed her eyes and a single teardrop escaped them. I looked up into the night sky and witness a shooting star passing by.

If only wishes could come true.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day was like any other day, hundred more miles of trekking through the humid jungle. It was getting hotter by the hour, the sun was at its highest and my water bottle is half full. The sound of wildlife is just intriguing to listen to in the jungle.

I can only imagine the amount of animal species that thrive in a less than friendly environment like this. But in this case I could care less about wildlife as I have bigger problems that plague my mind and they were just twirling around my head while I walk. Luna's holding up pretty well, but than again, she a spirit. The heat doesn't bother her.

I took one glance at her to see if she was keeping up, she looked like something was bothering, I can see it on her face.

I had no idea where I was going but my determination to find civilization is still tenacious, a small village would be nice, any place where there's people. My stomach is grumbling now, I guess the snake I caught last night wasn't enough to satiate my appetite. I needed to find more food.

Alright while I do that I want to tell something about me and I'm no good with stories. Eighteen years ago in Cuba, my father committed suicide and my mother abandoned me. I never even knew her name. I was alone but not until _she_ came into my life. A year later our town was raided by government forces, hundreds of civilians were executed. I was able to escape the onslaught but was forced the watch the brutality. Luna was there to comfort me. A month later I encountered a militia who opposed the Cuban government, I decided to join their ranks to help and the corrupt government. I even made some life-long friends; Vince was the first friend I made in the militia. He's strong willed but with a cocky attitude. Circuit, we call him that because of his interest in technology, he always likes to fiddle with radio parts and rearrange different pieces. Then there's Crawfish, the wildcard. He got his name for his love of eating the stuff. He can be crazy some of the time but he knows when to stop. Pranks are also his specialty.

Through the years of being a soldier we've endured a couple fire-fights but they were just small skirmishes. The militia was still looking for more recruits who are willing to fight to the death. There were only a few people who were interested in our cause but the majority were either afraid or hopeless. There was one recruit we've encounter. His name was trez. At first we trusted him, well except for Luna but I thought it was just in her head, but one day when we were sneaking through the forest to ambush an enemy camp we were blind sided by enemy fire. Government forces were everywhere, outnumbered and outgunned the each and everyone of the militia members fell. The four of us were spared and taken into their prison camp. Trez told me that he was the one who informed the Cuban Army of our location, but that's not all. He's also a CIA operative secretly working for the Cuban government. The CIA were looking for new disposable recruits, and we were the perfect candidates. Especially me. He told me that the CIA were good people and they will help us if we joined them. I was skeptical about his intentions. It's been a week since we were imprisoned. The CIA was conducting secret negotiations with the Cuban government to recruit us but we weren't having any of that bullshit. When the time was right we were able to escape the prison camp all thanks to Luna creating distractions and confusion. They were aware of are escape and sent out search parties but we were already miles away. I thought it was just luck until they finally caught up to us, and then they killed Vince. Crawfish was wounded, he died of blood loss. Circuit and I were the remaining survivors…until that plane incident from earlier. What a bunch of assholes they are to send in a fighter jet to shoot down a cargo plane.

But it was Cuba who sent them in the first place. The CIA was furious when they heard about this, but who cares I would just disappoint them anyway. I'd rather kill myself then to join forces with the man who was responsible for the deaths of my family, I don't care what you say the militia was like a family to me.

And now the only friend I have left is Luna. Most of my power comes from her, without her I would be nothing.

I've managed to catch a couple fish in a stream. It was good enough. I refilled my water but not before boiling to kill off unnecessary bacteria. The trip downhill hazardous, one slip and you go tumbling down the dirt hill and on to the forest floor but not before slamming into a couple trees along the way. I safely make my way down and head on further.

"Hey look!" Blurted out Luna all of a sudden.

I saw smoke. Probably coming from a village. A lucky break.

"Nice job Luna." I said to her. She smiled.

The village was pretty nice, I was greeted by a lot of friendly people and even offered me some food. Now how could turn that down?

"So you not from here?" A man in his late 40s asked me.

"No, I come from Cuba." I responded, trying to clarify every word because I assume that most of these people are not good at English.

"Cuba huh?" He replied. I looked over to Luna and saw her watching a bunch of kids play with a soccer ball. She had a smirk on her face.

"This place looks pretty peaceful, how long have you been living here?"

"I lived here for thirty years." He replied. "This place is also where many fisherman come together."

"Huh so do you fish?"

"Yes, I fish with my two sons, they are pretty good fisherman, we sometimes catch up to three-hundred pounds every day."

"That's good." A woman then walked carrying plates of different food. His wife.

"Okay here you go, you like fish?" She kindly asked me.

"Yes I do I like fish." I happily replied.

"Oh that's good oh wait I forgot the chili sauce." She went back into the house.

"You like some drink?" The husband asked me.

"No thanks."

The fish was good by the way.

* * *

The sun was setting soon so I decided to take a stroll down the beach, letting my feet get soaked in the cold water as endless waves crash onto the shore. Luna was in a very peaceful state right now which is good because I didn't like to see her depressed, the water seems to calm her down. While I was walking I spotted a shell, it was a nice looking shell, you could even pass it off as jewelry.

"What did you find?" Luna asked me, curious on what I'm holding.

"It's a shell." I let her examine.

"Wow, it looks so amazing." She said, joy filling her voice. It almost makes you smile.

I pocketed the shell and continued the walk on the beach.

"Hey Luna, how come you never talk about your sister?" I asked. I've been wanting to ask her that question. "Did something happen between the two of you?"

"Umm…well." I made her uneasy again, son of a bitch.

"Sorry I'm being stupid, you don't have to talk about it." I tried to reassure.

"No it's fine." She quickly replied. "I think it's time that I should tell you this, do you remember the story of me being trapped in the moon for a thousand years?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the reason why that happened was…my sister…she banished me."

Her sister sounds like a bitch all ready.

"But she did it for a good purpose."

"Which is?"

Luna gives out a sigh.

"A long time ago, my sister and I were co-rulers of a mystical called Equestria. My sister Celestia raises the sun and I raised the moon. Then one day, jealousy took over, I barely had any control of myself. I accused my sister of being an attention hog and how she barely give me any recognition. And then…It woke up."

"What woke up?"

"The beast inside me, that's been growing ever more larger as time passed until…It was finally released."

The was sun was at the horizon now.

"The beast known as Nightmare Moon who lived off of fear and hatred, she was in control now, I couldn't stop her, I didn't want to. It was the day where Celestia and I physically fought for the first time. I was aiming to hurt with no disregard. No remorse."

Here come the tears.

"How could I live with myself?"

"Hey come on, even though the two of you fought a long time ago I'm sure your sister still loves you right?" I don't want her crying again, she needs a time to relax and take things easy. I just fucked it up for her.

"I don't know, what if she doesn't want to ever see me again, how will I cope with that?"

"Listen Luna, a family always sticks together no matter what happens, if you do meet your sister again, I'm sure she'll come to you with arms wide open."

Luna's face brighten.

"Thank you Serpent, what will I do without you?"

I wrapped my arms around her, she did the same with her wings. But for some reason I just don't feel very joyful anymore, it's almost as if it was sucked away from my body. The feeling of uncertainty washed over me.

The sun has set.

* * *

The walk back to the village was a quiet one, not many people were out and only two out of five houses had lights on. Children were going home and fisherman were wrapping up for the day. I didn't know where I was going to sleep so I figured I'd asked the man I met earlier to see if I can crash his place. He probably won't mind.

"The night is just peaceful isn't it?" Said Luna, staring at the night sky.

"Yeah it's very nice, almost as nice as you." I replied. Luna released a chuckle, a small blush could be seen on her face.

I was fiddling with the shell in my pocket, I was thinking about turning it into a necklace for Luna. I'm she'd love it. Then all of a sudden a noise came. The sound of propellers were getting really closer. It was a chopper. The villagers were confused and had no clue of what's happening.

"Serpent?" Luna said in a worried voice.

I didn't have time to respond when the chopper activated is search light. It must be them.

"This way!" I ordered, running into an alley and hid behind a pile of boxes. The search light narrowly spotting me.

"Are you fucking serious?" I muttered. "How the fuck…" I was cut off when an APC came crashing into a wall far from my left. Trez is one son of a bitch, but he sure is a smart son of a bitch.


	3. Chapter 3

The situation is worsening, he's sent in reinforcements just in case and now I have to find an escape route fast. Luckily the APC stopped far away so they didn't spot…not yet though. I saw soldiers pouring out of the rear entrance. Wearing dark-cladded gear and sporting assault rifles. These guys look like special ops, or black ops. It's pretty rare seeing these guys but I have seen some of them, working together with CIA mercs.

Luna was beside me, she had a troubled expression on her face. I wouldn't blame her for being like this but right now I have no time to go panicking. I need find a way out and those trees over there on the far north of the village may lead to a forest.

My plan has been set.

"Luna!" I spoke to her and she faced me, ready to listen. "We need to reach that forest all the way over there, stay focused and make sure that we don't get spotted okay."

Luna nods her head confirming the order. I carefully jumped from each hiding spot to the next, cautiously making my way towards the edge of the forest nearly getting caught in one of the search lights as the chopper flew by. I can feel my heart pounding against my chest like a jackhammer. Luna was guarding my blind spots so one of the soldiers don't come at me from behind. I'm almost at the forest entrance, there was a small building probably thirty feet from my current position. It doesn't look too far. I exited the alley way and ran for the structure but than at the same time a soldier popped up from my right.

He was ten feet from me. I don't he think saw me though because he was stayed motionless for what felt like forever. He then said something I couldn't understand. Was he talking to me? I then realized that he was talking on his radio. How very fortunate. I think my heart rate just sped up right there, adrenaline was kicking in. I finally came to my senses and slowly crept up to him making sure to stay in his blind sight. Luna was holding her breath while I sneak up on him, did she not sense him at all?

I was now five feet from the soldier, he was communicating with his teammates on his radio and the moment he finished his call he jerked his head to the left. I assume that I was now in his line of sight because I could see his eyes staring at me like a surprised eye-eye. That was moment I advanced, a one hard swipe to the head with my hook knocked him out cold. He fell with a thud, motionless. After I took his gun I looked up at Luna and she released the breath she was holding in.

"What happened?" I asked her sternly. Luna looks at me questioningly.

"What?" She said, not understanding what I meant.

"Why didn't you alert me?" I questioned her. "Did you not sense him?"

"I-I'm sorry, I guess I had a lot on my mind it was kind of difficult for me to keep my mind intact". She answered while unable to make eye contact. I'll let this slide since we're sitting ducks out here.

"Come on." I said to her and we both bolted into the safety of the thick forest.

* * *

The forest was dark as shit but luckily my eye sight works fairly well in the dark so I have no problem spotting trees from a few feet away, I assume Luna is the reason. She is the princess of the night after all, our minds are linked so that gives me some of her abilities when I need them; like night time vision for example. But she can only transfer a minimal amount of magic to me, I have no idea why and Luna doesn't seem to know either. Even though we managed to evade Trez I still have one question lurking in my mind; how the fuck did he find me? Unless he planted some sort of tracking device on me or he just has a really good nose and he can sniff me out.

Alright we've been running for what feels thirty minutes so we decided to stop assuming that they lost are trail.

"How you holding up?" I asked Luna, she was breathing heavily.

"Good, I'm doing good." Luna responds with a smile. I nodded and retrieved my water bottle to take a sip.

"Damn Trez, I told the guy 'no I don't want to join' but apparently he's to fuckin stubborn to admit defeat." I said with malice in my voice. Luna notices it fairly easily.

"I have no clue on how he knew your location either." Said Luna. "I'm just glad that we're far away from him." I could agree with that statement. The man is fuckin strange, his presents alone gives off an uneasy feeling inside me. He also looks almost like Two-Face from Batman, the right side of his face is completely devastated, a portion of his cheek is missing exposing some of his teeth, the right side of his nose is missing some flesh and not to mention a right eye ball was gone leaving an empty socket. He showed it to me once and it was fucked up.

"Let's just keep heading forward, maybe we'll find a place to camp out." I reassured Luna, she nods in return. I examined the gun I picked up a while ago, an M4 custom equipped with a suppressor, a flashlight and a red dot sight. Absolutely CIA. There's no doubt that they'll use many different tactics to capture me. I need to stay on my toes at all times and if something goes wrong Luna will be at my side.

My leg was killing me again, at that point I knew I couldn't walk all night but there's no way I'm stopping now, not since that little close encounter. Luna senses my pain and walks up to me. I was slightly hobbling now, Luna presses her side against me while her wing is wrapped around me to keep my balance.

"You know what would be nice?" I asked her. "A nice little mate drink, I haven't had those in a long time." Luna chuckles at my random statement.

"Well if we get out of this alive I'll give you as many tasty mates you can drink." She said jokingly.

"Now we're talking."

The walk was fairly slow now since I'm using Luna as a crutch, although she doesn't really seem to mind at all. She cares very much about me, maybe even more than a father loving his child. She would probably even hand over her own life just to barely save mine without any hesitation. I hope it won't ever come to that. But what if I do die? Was she really sincere about killing herself? These thoughts were running around in my head when all of a sudden I heard a faint buzzing noise emanating from behind us and the sound of bullets whizzing by.

Fuck, they found me.

I pushed Luna off so I can run by myself again, another bullet whizzed by me but to my right. Luna was running beside me, matching my speed. These bastards were aging on us so I kicked it into full throttle and started sprinting like fuck. I could care less about the pain in my leg I just want the fuck away from these guys. I nearly tripped on some fallen branches but quickly recovered. Another bullet whizzed by and grazed my prosthetic leg, I could feel the shockwave from the bullet but it was enough for me to falter the slightest. A couple seconds later my prosthetic leg fell apart and I fell over pretty hard. Luna stops immediately finding my body now laying on the forest floor.

"SERPENT!" Cried Luna. She ran over to me worry plastered all over her face.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Before I could answer I heard a voice of one of the soldiers.

"FREEZE!" The soldier ordered. I slowly reached for my rifle I dropped. He notices my progression.

"I SAID FREEZE!" The soldier repeated, firmly aiming his weapon at me. The other soldiers surround us, I guess this is it. I see a man walking toward me. Luna scowls at him. Why it's none other then Two-Face himself what a fuckin surprise.

"You know you didn't have to go to this length of trouble." Explained Trez. "You could've been a fine agent, hell I even would've taken you under my wing."

"Fuck that." I snarled at him. He smiles.

"I always knew you were the resilient type, which is why chose you out of all your friends. But, there's something else, something that completely separates you from everyone else."

I just glared at him, and so did Luna. If looks could kill we would've wasted all of them in a matter of seconds.

"How did you find me?"

"Well that prosthetic arm of yours was a major help for us in tracking you down."

So he did plant something on me, he probably gave me a replacement arm with a transmitter inside it when my previous prosthetic arm was damaged in the ambush.

"You know those special abilities could come in very handy for us. You could help a lot people with those powers, even save lives. Look, I'm just saying don't let them go to waste."

Not even convincing the slightest.

"It's your choice kid, come with us nice and quietly or we'll drag you with us. Which is it?"

I took this time to throw my hook at him, hoping he'll get knocked out in one swing, unfortunately he saw right threw me. He blocked my attack at the last second and grabbed my hook, I tried pulling my arm back but to no avail he held on. He then lifted his left leg and stomped on my chest forcing back down on the forest floor.

"SERPENT!" Cried out Luna as she watched helplessly.

Trez dusts off his suit and turns his back towards me.

"Take him in." He ordered the soldiers and walked off.

The soldiers obeyed and moved toward me. Luna at this point was furious at the scarred man. There's no way she's going to just stand there and watch, not when her only friend is being hauled off against his own will. No, she will absolutely not take that!

Hers eyes began to glow hot white, a strange white aura is starting to surround her and within seconds she was completely enveloped in light. The soldiers and Trez noticed this as they felt a strange power surge coming from behind them and what they witness was incredible. It was like a orb a bright light wielding massive amounts of unknown energy. They were staring at it in awe. I didn't notice it at first but when I did I had to squint a little because the light was so damn bright, I could even feel the heat emanating from it.

"Luna." I muttered under my breath. The light was getting brighter, I not sure on what was happening right now but this is no doubt the brightest I've ever…


End file.
